Airline Programs

The highly successful airline “affinity” programs were first launched in 1981 by American Airlines. The the new award program was named American AAdvantage. It quickly became apparent the immediate influence such programs had in establishing customer loyalty and marketing data that ALL airlines had to develop their own programs or quickly join an alliance to be a player. MANY well known air carriers that were NOT as effective in developing the marketing strategies of a “frequent flyer” program would go the way of the Dodo bird and become extinct – Pam Am – TWA – Northwest Airlines – Continental.